Research Guides: A Guide to Teaching with OER: Open & Free Materials: Adopt or Create

Evaluating OER Quality

Instructional Materials Toolkit
Helpful array of tools from the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) and the Association of American Publishers (AAP):
- Selecting Quality Course Materials for Higher Education;
- Identifying Quality Course Materials;
- as well as K-12-specific checklists and an FAQ on OER.
Evaluation Criteria for Open Textbooks
From the American Institute of Mathematics
BC Open Textbooks Review Criteria
Suggested criteria by which to evaluate open textbooks.
Achieve OER Rubrics
Provides a set of rubrics to help determine how OER aligns to educational standards and determine other aspects of quality of OER. Although these rubrics are more geared towards K-12, they can still be helpful guides.

Five Steps to OER Adoption
From the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER)
Open Textbook Adoption Tutorial
By Judy Baker, hosted by OpenStax
Faculty OER Toolkit from BCcampus
The Faculty OER Toolkit is an information resource about and guide to adapting and adopting Open Educational Resources. Included are definitions and examples, information about Creative Commons licensing, and tips on how to adapt and/or adopt OER for classroom use.
Faculty Showcase, California State University
See case studies and personal experiences from CSU faculty, across colleges and disciplines. Learn what they've adopted, how they made the switch to open, and what feedback they have received from students.
OER Adoption Impact Calculator
"The OER Adoption Impact Explorer helps you understand some of the impacts of adopting OER instead of commercial textbooks. Change the values...to match data from your institution to see how OER adoption can benefit your students and institution. Charts, graphs, and language will update in real time as you make changes."

Modifying an Open Textbook: What you Need to Know
This is a five-step guide for faculty, and those who support faculty, who want to modify an open textbook. Step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook file and platform types are included. (Published by Open Textbook Network, Nov 2016.)
Faculty OER Toolkit from BCcampus
The Faculty OER Toolkit is an information resource about and guide to adapting and adopting Open Educational Resources. Included are definitions and examples, information about Creative Commons licensing, and tips on how to adapt and/or adopt OER for classroom use.
Adaptation Guide - BCcampus Open Education
A practical guide to adapting or revising open textbooks using the PressBooks platform. Included are tips to revising this OER, how to use the Pressbooks publishing platform, and general information on open textbooks and other open educational resources (OER).

Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians by Creative Commons [organization]
This book will help you understand how Creative Commons licenses work and how to apply them to your own work, whether its a remix of existing CC works or an entirely new composition.

Educational Best Practices in Building OER
From Maricopa Community Colleges
Self-Publishing Guide - BCcampus Open Education
A reference for individuals or groups wanting to write and self-publish an open textbook.This guide provides details on the preparation, planning, writing, publication, and maintenance of an open textbook. Copyright, open-copyright licences, and the differences between citation and attribution are discussed as well as the importance of copy editing and proofreading. Checklists and templates are also provided.
The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far)
"The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) is a living repository of collective knowledge, written to equip all those who want to publish open textbooks with the resources they need."
How to Mark Your Work with a CC License
"You have chosen a CC license for your work. Now how do you go about letting the world know? Here are some examples of how to mark your work with the CC license."

Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians by Creative Commons [organization]
This book will help you understand how Creative Commons licenses work and how to apply them to your own work, whether its a remix of existing CC works or an entirely new composition.
Understanding Document Accessibility: A Reference for Creating Accessible Office Documents by Digital Education Strategies, The Chang School
Publication Date: Jan 2020
"Intended for a general audience, this free resource reviews a wide range of document authoring applications, including the tools they contain for creating accessible documents, and tests them to ensure they do not contain potential barriers. Learn how to create accessible word processed documents, spreadsheets, presentation slides, and PDF documents, among others, so they are accessible to everyone."

Open Author from OER Commons
Free OER creation platform. Includes robust text editing, multimedia integration, and built-in accessibility checking.
PubPub
Collaborative publishing platform with free and paid service levels available.PubPub supports each part of the publishing process, from drafting documents, conducting peer review, and hosting entire journal and book websites, to collecting and displaying reader feedback and analytics.
Sigil
Free and open-source EPUB ebook editor; runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux
calibre
Free and open-source e-book manager with a built-in editor for EPUB and Kindle formats
LibreTexts Remixer
The OER Remixer tool allows the rapidly assemble of customized Remixes from existing sources on LibreText's comprehensive and ever-growing libraries.